HDR wrote:(June 30, 2016) - HDR has selected an Aksarben Village location for the company's new global headquarters. The building will be located on the corner of 67th and Frances Streets in Omaha.

The new location is ideal for HDR's workforce both within and outside of Omaha, according to Chairman and CEO George A. Little. " We have outgrown our current site so this location will serve our needs today and take us well into the future," he said. In addition to a central Omaha location for Omaha employees and convenient Interstate access from the airport for visitors, Aksarben Village provides walkable access to restaurants, entertainment, hotels and the Keystone pedestrian and bike trail.

"We're excited to be in a vibrant area that we had a hand in revitalizing, and happy to be part of the area's strong educational presence including engineering, architecture and construction management programs at the University of Nebraska and Peter Kiewit Institute," Little said. Some of HDR's design work nearby includes Baxter Arena, Gordmans headquarters, and Think Whole Person Healthcare. HDR also did the initial master plan for Aksarben Village and has conducted several traffic studies for the area.

The new headquarters will be ten stories and 228,218 square feet, which can immediately house 1,150 employees. There is room to build a second building to accommodate expected future growth. HDR will serve as the architect of record. Noddle Companies is the developer for the project and Noddle Bradford Holdings will be the owner. First National Bank of Omaha is providing financing for the project and Kiewit Building Group will provide construction services. "The final requirements to move forward are for Noddle Companies to submit an amendment to the Aksarben Village Mixed-Use Agreement and a Tax Increment Financing application to the city of Omaha. Once they are approved we'll be ready to start planning a groundbreaking event," said Little. Construction is slated to begin in late 2016 and be completed in early 2019.

Q: I’m concerned about getting in and out of the area. Have you looked at the traffic situation?We have conducted numerous traffic studies for the Aksarben area. Certainly, there will be times when traffic is heavier, particularly when there is an event at Baxter Arena or at Stinson Park. However, most days, getting in and out of the parking garage and in and out of the area will be very similar to our traffic situation at 84th & Indian Hills today.

stabone99 wrote:Q: I’m concerned about getting in and out of the area. Have you looked at the traffic situation?We have conducted numerous traffic studies for the Aksarben area. Certainly, there will be times when traffic is heavier, particularly when there is an event at Baxter Arena or at Stinson Park. However, most days, getting in and out of the parking garage and in and out of the area will be very similar to our traffic situation at 84th & Indian Hills today.

Oh boy.

Well, at least the building looks slightly cooler than the one they would have built downtown.

For me, the only spot more disappointing would have been south somewhere in Papillion/La Vista and that area may not have even been an option. They have grossly underestimated how awful traffic will be or how it is now it appears.

Disappointing they're not going downtown, but good that they're not impacting things in as negative a way as the original OPAS/HDR plan would have, tearing things down that should be saved.

The added traffic was already coming to AK village anyway, whether from HDR or other new tenants in the area. 1K more cars is not a huge deal. Sure it will be noticeable, but at least the 84th-90th & Dodge area will get some relief for a while. When that gets backed-up now, it affects traffic all the way over to 72nd & Pacific.

He said "They are some big, ugly red brick buildings"...and then they were gone.

From my perspective, at least it will be located at an area that I often visit. It will make Aksarben a pretty impressive place. If it couldn't be anywhere around downtown, this is probably my 2nd preference. Since I don't work at Aksarben and live in the Field Club area, traffic is not one of my considerations.

I actually like this design more than their downtown version. It's going to be at least as tall as BCBS too, which will be fun I guess. I was still rooting for downtown, but this is much better than Boystown.

When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other that not only does God exist, you're doing his will.

RNcyanide wrote:I actually like this design more than their downtown version. It's going to be at least as tall as BCBS too, which will be fun I guess. I was still rooting for downtown, but this is much better than Boystown.

Also, they mention that there will be room to build an additional building for future growth, which I am assuming is the building in the background. So, it looks like parking won't be much of an issue for them.

When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other that not only does God exist, you're doing his will.

Whoa. The city needs to grab the bull by the horns and figure out why it can't get a business to locate downtown. Stothert wants to shop out the library spot and lot B? Not any good unless someone's willing to locate there. Boystown will be stealing any future development.

choke wrote:Whoa. The city needs to grab the bull by the horns and figure out why it can't get a business to locate downtown. Stothert wants to shop out the library spot and lot B? Not any good unless someone's willing to locate there. Boystown will be stealing any future development.

There are business and jobs locating DT. The vacancy rate at 8.4% is evidence enough of that.

As for the project at hand. We are lucky to have multiple urban/new urban options for businesses to locate to. A/V is a heck of a consolation price to DT IMO. Many other peer cities don't have something like it.

iamjacobm wrote:As for the project at hand. We are lucky to have multiple urban/new urban options for businesses to locate to. A/V is a heck of a consolation price to DT IMO. Many other peer cities don't have something like it.

Agreed. Omaha's multi-nodal nature is an incredible strong point, as much as seeing the loss of a downtown location may hurt. Like I mentioned earlier, it's all the more reason to have a good transit system.

choke wrote:Whoa. The city needs to grab the bull by the horns and figure out why it can't get a business to locate downtown. Stothert wants to shop out the library spot and lot B? Not any good unless someone's willing to locate there. Boystown will be stealing any future development.

There are business and jobs locating DT. The vacancy rate at 8.4% is evidence enough of that.

I hope so. I'm can remember how desolate DTO was at one time. AK was going to fill out no matter what. It's a blow, especially with the CONAgra departure.

Working as I do at AK Village, I wonder in the long run, if George Little will regret this decision. At present, AK Village is a traffic congested annoyance..rounding into a nightmare..

Obviously it's better "here" than way out west like the Boystown property (I never bought that rumor anyway)..

In the end to me, it always comes back to- opportunity lost for downtown..

I can't really wax the optimistic.. Other than at least HDR didn't locate "way out west"..and at least we don't have to hear about the endless location speculation..and from my corporate office, I should have a decent view as this HQ's "rises" from the AK turf..

Once HDR scrapped the downtown plan this was my preferred location, so I'm at least happy with that.

I still have lost a ton of respect for HDR as a company for abandoning their downtown plan after such seemingly fixable issues. As well, OPAS will still get zero of my support from now on for being completely inflexible and the primary reason plans were scrapped.

In conclusion, HDR this is a weak BS move by you but kudos for at least picking the second best location. OPAS, go |expletive| yourself you stuffy old pompous group, I hope nothing but the worst for you.

I don't mind that HDR is building here because something was going to build there regardless. And yes, aksarben is already busy and this will add to that. Hopefully a good chunk of their employees will use transit. All those who live near Leavenworth, and Farnam/42nd/Center/West Center have great service as it is. I guarantee once the BRT and Streetcar get going, one or both of these modes will be available to aksarben. I'm leaning more toward BRT since aksarben is essentially built out at this point and doesn't need the help of a streetcar for development.

I don't care for the design, though. Very underwhelming in my opinion. For an architecture firm, this does not wow me at all.

As a current HDR employee, I'm absolutely amazed at all the strong opinions expressed on this forum about where a single private company should setup shop. I'd like to share a few of my thoughts on the subject as someone who's most directly affected by the decision. I'm not from Omaha, but am from a smaller city here the Midwest. After college, I went to one of the coasts in search of work. I eventually found myself with a 60 mile each way commute that passed through a section of road dubbed "the devils triangle". In 15 years, I saw all sorts of mayhem on the roads including dead bodies and vehicles on fire with the occupants trapped inside. My wife and I both eventually began to miss the our family and friends in the Midwest, so we started looking at options to move back this way. Long story short, we landed in Omaha, and I landed at HDR. We had two goals when looking for a house here in Omaha, a short commute to work and easy access to the bike trails. My wife found a place that was about 4 miles from HDR and 1/2 block from the bike trail. This has drastically reduced the amount of time I spend in traffic and allowed me to spend more time on the bike, which in turn has help improve my fitness and probably helped make me more productive at work. The nice thing about living in this part of Omaha is that it doesn't feel like a big city while living my day to day life. Another nice thing is that Omaha is big enough that we can find things to do in our free time without driving several hours. We typically try not to go out during times of peak traffic.

I hadn't been at HDR very long before discussions turned to where the new headquarters would be. The employees didn't get a chance to provide input on site selection, but we did initially get some information on the general areas under consideration. Of the early areas discussed, I liked Aksarben the best, followed by Midtown, Boystown, and lastly downtown. I liked and still like Askarben because we could stay in the same neighborhood and I'll be able to ride my bike to work without risking life and limb on "survivable arterials" (reference to Omaha's bicycle route map). Aksarben and somewhat Midtown are for the most part in the geographical center of the metro area, so I thought that would cause the least disruption to current employees and their families. Although Boystown would have worked for me, I felt like it would help continue the westward sprawl that Omaha already has enough of. Crossroads wouldn't be that bad, but the mile between 84th and 72nd almost always makes me crazy. Downtown was really the worst of all worlds for me. I would have probably moved closer to downtown or to Council Bluffs, because I've had enough of bumper to bumper interstate traffic, and the thought of driving 11 miles each way down Dodge every day made me want to lay open a vein. My wife and I discussed the idea of moving downtown, but neither of us want to live on top of our neighbors. Also, at this point in our lives, there are other things we need to spend money besides and expensive apartment or condo. I know people claim that millennials want to live downtown, without a car, etc. I've never bought that. Most of the millennials I know are looking for a house, yard, dog, and maybe a couple of kids. Another option would be to change jobs or transfer to a different HDR office. That would be a shame, because I really like working at HDR, and my wife and both really like Omaha.

When the first site was chosen, I asked several employees their opinion. The most common response was that they could live with it because they'd only have to commute for a few years after the move until they retired. The second most common response is they would just move to (or back to) Iowa.

The biggest concern I've heard about the new site is traffic. This is a legitimate concern for several areas in Omaha, especially during the morning and afternoon rush. Events at the arena will also make things worse. Here's how I look at it: The current location has traffic issues on 84th, Dodge, Pacific, etc., that I have to wade through for 4 miles to get home. Aksarben has traffic issues that I'll have to wade through 6 miles of traffic to get home. Downtown has traffic issues that I would have had to wade through 11 plus miles of potentially deadly traffic to get home, move, change jobs, or leave Omaha.

Also, I think locating next to UNO and the Kiewit Institute will be beneficial for both HDR and the University if they can create more collaboration opportunities.

Also, note the street address of the building - 1917 - the year HDR was founded.

For me it's a no brainer, but I'm not the only one affected. I plan to ride my bike as much as possible, so maybe that will east the congestion just slightly. A few other people I've spoken with have indicated the same. So I guess I'll end this by saying "happy trails".